A suspected looter in this week's riots and his mother are being thrown out of their council home.

In the first case of its kind, Daniel Sartain-Clarke, 18, and his mother have been served with an eviction notice as council bosses seek to turf them out of their £225,000 taxpayer-subsidised flat.

Sartain-Clarke is charged with violent disorder and attempting to steal electronic goods from the Currys store at Clapham Junction, South London, on Monday night.

Under housing rules his mother - as the tenant - can be evicted from their two-bedroom flat in Battersea if anyone living there is involved in criminality.

Sartain-Clarke was arrested after more than 100 looters went on the rampage on Monday night. For two hours, the mob ransacked mobile phone stores and sports shops such as Foot Locker and JD Sports.

He appeared before magistrates in Battersea on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to burglary and violent disorder. He and two co-defendants were remanded in custody.

So he he has not yet actually been tried and convicted, has he ?

Therefore he should be treated, for now, as innocent until proven guilty

Wandsworth Council have therefore been too quick off the mark in this particular case, in their political mob mentality haste, to Be Seen To Be Doing Something about the riots.

Why could they not have waited a few days or weeks, to see if the man (he is 18 years old) is actually convicted or not ?

Their extra-judical punishment of his family and extensive publicity about this case is clearly a Contempt of Court , exactly like that in the recent Joanna Yates murder case, where tabloid newspapers were heavily fined for the "risk of serious prejudice to any future trial"

The Council Tax payers of Wandsworth will end up paying substantial damages and legal costs, because of this hasty political blunder.

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